MS Star Princess Cruise Ship at Dawn, Admiralty Pier, Dover Harbour, Kent, UK

Looking more like the business-end of a gigantic tank landing craft than a cruise ship, this is an early morning view of the Star Princess manoeuvring into position to berth alongside the Admiralty Pier (on the right) in Dover Harbour's Western Docks.

The photo was taken on Wednesday, 5th of May, 2010, from the lighthouse end of the Prince of Wales Pier; the bow of the Star Princess is pointing towards the English Channel.

The Star Princess (IMO: 9192363) set sail from Fort Lauderdale (Port Everglades), USA, on April 24th carrying passengers for the 18-night "Northern Europe Passage" and the 28-night "Northern Europe Grand Adventure" cruises.

So far the ship has called at Ponta Delgada (Portugal), Lisbon (Portugal) and Vigo (Spain). At 8 pm this evening the Star Princess is scheduled to leave Dover Harbour to call at Le Havre (for Paris, France), Zeebrugge (Belgium), Rotterdam (Netherlands, or Holland), Oslo (Norway), Gothenburg (Sweden), and Copenhagen (Denmark).

The "Northern Europe Passage" ends in Copenhagen. The remainder of the "Northern Europe Grand Adventure" cruise will then run concurrent with a 10-night "Scandinavia and Russia" cruise calling at: Stockholm (Sweden), Helsinki (Finland), St. Petersburg (Russia), Tallinn (Estonia), Gdansk (Poland), Oslo (Norway), before returning to (Copenhagen (Denmark).

The Star Princess has a Bridge webcam which refreshes every 5 minutes - the webcam is also shown on this Seascanner webpage below a satellite map tracking the ship's movements (try it!).

Two other photos of this visit have been uploaded: Star Princess at Sunset and Star Princess leaving Dover.

The Star Princess is a Princess Cruises cruise ship. The Star Princess is a sister ship of the Grand Princess and the Golden Princess. An earlier ship of the same name is now operating as the Ocean Village. The Star Princess was built by Fincantieri in Monfalcone, Italy in 2002, and has hull number 6051. Star Princess differs slightly in upper deck layout from her predecessors, having an extra plunge pool (and one less hot tub) at the stern (deck 15) and with the deletion of the "Off Limits" teenagers' hot tub and sunbathing area featured further forward on her predecessors. Another ship of similar design, Caribbean Princess, was subsequently built, featuring an additional deck of cabins ("Riviera Deck") to accommodate more passengers. (1)

Ship details (1):

Name: Star Princess (link may not work in Firefox)

Owner: Carnival Corporation and PLC

Operator: Princess Cruise Line

Port of registry: Hamilton, Bermuda

Builder: Fincantieri in Monfalcone, Italy

Yard number: 6051

Launched: 10 May 2001

Completed: 25 January 2002

In service: 2002

Class and type: Grand-class cruise ship

Tonnage: 109,000 gross tons

Length: 951 feet (290 m)

Beam: 118 feet (36 m)

Decks: 17 Decks

Speed: 22.5 knots service speed, 24 knots max

Capacity: 2,600 passengers

Crew: 1,150 crew

The _Star Pricess _ has IMO number 9192363 and callsign ZCDD6.

Click to see all Cruise Ship photos (related tags: Boats, Ferries, Ships).

(1) Source: Star Princess

John Latter / Jorolat

Dover Blog: The Psychology of a Small Town

This is the Images of Dover website: click on any red or blue "John Latter" link to access the Entry Page.

When in range of AIS, the vessel's current position is shown at:

MS Star Princess Cruise Ship (MMSI 310361000)

The Automatic Identification System (AIS) is an automatic tracking system used on ships and by vessel traffic services (VTS) for identifying and locating vessels by electronically exchanging data with other nearby ships and AIS Base stations. AIS information supplements marine radar, which continues to be the primary method of collision avoidance for water transport.

This photo also appears on the Pinterest Dover Cruise Ships board as:

MS Star Princess Cruise Ship at Dawn, Port of Dover, England